NSF Intl. announced it now tests and certifies the filters used in portable water filter bottles against NSF standards for drinking water treatment products.

NSF Intl. developed the standards for water filtration products more than 40 years ago. One of these standards, NSF/ANSI Standard 42: Drinking Water Treatment Units - Aesthetic Effects, is used to verify that a drinking water filter effectively removes contaminants that cause undesirable odor and taste, such as chlorine. NSF scientists recently used the standard to develop an innovative testing method for water bottles with built-in filters.

NSF Intl. tested four leading companies’ filters to NSF/ANSI 42: Brita, CamelBak, Cool Gear and Move Collective (Bobble filtered water bottle). Collectively, these brands are the first to have their water filter bottles certified to NSF/ANSI 42.

“These water bottles’ filters were subjected to rigorous testing and evaluation before earning certification to NSF/ANSI 42, and consumers can be assured that they can trust the claims they see on the packaging of an NSF-certified water bottle filter,” said Rick Andrew, general manager of NSF’s Drinking Water Treatment Units Program. “NSF develops new test methods based on our American national standards to support innovative technologies in the residential water treatment industry.”

Additional certifications are also now available, according to Andrew. Certifications to NSF/ANSI Standard 53: Drinking Water Treatment Units – Health Effects would verify that a standard can effectively reduce specific health-related contaminants, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead, volatile organic compounds and MTBE, that may be present in drinking water.